Spring flow sales tax increase closer

EARIP has reached consensus on pursuing a ¼-cent sales tax.

Published 12:00 am, Friday, February 11, 2011

Funding for the protection of flows at the San Marcos and Comal springs during a drought reached two milestones Thursday.

The 26 stakeholders of the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program reached consensus on a new ¼-cent sales tax and gained some political support for it. The tax would have to be authorized by the state Legislature and be approved by voters in at least 10 counties that draw from the aquifer or the Guadalupe River.

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“I am inclined to be supportive, as long as the resources are spent in a way that ensures continued access to the Edwards Aquifer,” he said.

For the past three years the EARIP has worked on a plan to assure pumpers of the aquifer, San Antonio being the largest, could continue to take water from it during a drought while also protecting the endangered species and cities, such as San Marcos and New Braunfels, that depend on the aquifer's springs.

For years it seemed the opposing interests could not reach a compromise, Wentworth said, but now that they have, he wants to support them.

“That's not much of a tax if it will help resolve a decades-old problem,” he said.

The exact boundaries of the proposed taxing district have not been set but would stretch from the coast up the Guadalupe River basin and across the aquifer from Uvalde to Hays County. The tax, estimated to generate $60 million a year, would be spent for the protection of the spring flows and downstream environmental projects, such as assuring river flows for endangered species including the whooping crane.

The plan for the springs is expected to cost $30 million a year, almost half of which would go to the San Antonio Water System to store water in an underground reservoir in southern Bexar County that could be used during a drought to offset pumping from the aquifer. Another $10 million would be used to pay agricultural landowners not to irrigate during a drought.

The rest of the money would be spent on improving habitat, controlling invasive species and parasites, conservation programs and scientific studies.

Cost estimates for the downstream projects are $1.5 million.

The spring protection plan and the funding are subject to the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so that the management of the aquifer can remain under local control. The work of the EARIP is the result of a federal lawsuit in which a judge threatened federal management of the aquifer if the state did not take action to protect the endangered species of the springs.

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Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said he thinks getting authorization for a new sales tax in the Legislature is unlikely based on his experience in the last three sessions trying to get a tax for transportation projects. “We could never get any authority for transportation,” he said. “But good luck.”

Wolff said it would make more sense to him to have pumpers pay for the cost of the protection plan.

The EARIP will meet soon to consider such alternatives to the sales tax in case it does not pass.